For a user equipment (User Equipment, UE) that activates services such as Email push, MSN, QQ, and virtual private network (Virtual Private Network, VPN) to maintain a connection with an application server within a time period when no service data occurs, keepalive (keep alive) information or heart beat (heart beat) information needs to be exchanged with the application server. The features of keepalive information are small data packets and frequent transmission.
In the prior art, the keepalive information is processed in a manner same as that of processing ordinary data. The UE needs to initiate a radio resource control (RRC) connection setup process or a cell update process each time when the keepalive information is transmitted. Because the keepalive information is frequently transmitted, the UE also needs to initiate the above process frequently.
Therefore, signaling loads are heavy.